Is The Tomb A Womb?

Good morning…

In the dark of this night, I feel drawn to page 154 in one of my favorite books, When the Heart Waits, by Sue Monk Kidd. I return to the section entitled EASTERING. Midway through the next page I read: “My thoughts about Jesus waiting in the tomb for Easter began to blend with the thoughts I had during the week about the soul waiting in the womb for new birth. Womb and tomb. The two words resonated with me. As I listened to the rhyme of sound and then to the rhyme of meaning, I heard the words with new clarity. The darkness of Jesus’ tomb became a place of transformation, a womb, the waiting room of new life. The darkness of death was transformed into a life-giving dark.”

“Can this happen within us as well?” Sue Monk Kidd turns and asks. “I believe so. Julian of Norwich wrote that our wounds become the womb. This touching image points us to the awareness that transformation hinges on our ability to turn our pain (the tomb) into a fertile place where life is birthed (the womb).”

“…the question filled me,” she zeros in. “How could I transform the darkness of Holy Saturday into the darkness of the womb?”

I change one word in the final sentence. I prayerfully ponder, “How can I transform the darkness of Holy Saturday into the darkness of the womb?”

I close my eyes. I am hemmed in by dark. Instinctively, my fingers find the right keys for my inner thoughts to be appear on my computer screen. “Dearest Jesus, on this Holy Saturday, in what ways is your life gestating in me?” My breath slows and deepens. I really, really listen for any inkling from God. I sit with my eyes closed for as long as it takes.

When the time is right, I open my eyes and am drawn back to the book, back to page 148. I read these words from Sue Monk Kidd: “Spiritual life is an ongoing experience of spiritual gestation, of giving birth to deeper dimensions of wholeness. We enter the spiritual womb many times. As the Bible says, ‘We…are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another’ (2 Cor 3:18), in other words, birth by birth.”

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image (2 Corinthians 3:18, NLT).

…Sue…

P.S. To read more about this ongoing experience of spiritual gestation, prayerfully ponder the extensive list of scripture verses and key quotes found at the end of our recent blog My Most Vulnerable Post.

P.S.S. If you are looking for a church service on Easter, please consider these options at Northside Church (2799 Northside Dr. NW, Atlanta).